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Abstract. Cold frontal passages usually promote quick removal of atmospheric pollutants over North China (e.g. the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region). However, in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), cold fronts may bring air pollutants from the polluted North China Plain (NCP), thereby deteriorating the air quality in the YRD. In this study, a cold frontal passage and a subsequent stable weather event over YRD during 21–26 January 2015 was investigated with in situ observations and Weather Research and Forecasting – Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System simulations. Observations showed a burst of PM2.5 pollution and an obvious southward motion of PM2.5 peaks on the afternoon of 21 January, suggesting a strong inflow of highly polluted air masses to YRD by a cold frontal passage. Model simulations revealed an existing warm and polluted air mass over YRD ahead of the frontal zone, which climbed to the free troposphere along the frontal surface as the cold front passed, increasing the PM2.5 concentration at high altitudes. Strong north-westerly frontal airflow transported particles from the highly polluted NCP to the YRD. As the frontal zone moved downstream of YRD, high pressure took control over the YRD, which resulted in a synoptic subsidence that trapped PM2.5 in the boundary layer. After the cold frontal episode, a uniform pressure field took control over the YRD. Locally emitted PM2.5 started to accumulate under the weak winds and stable atmosphere. Tagging of PM2.5 by geophysical regions showed that the PM2.5 contribution from the YRD itself was 35 % and the contribution from the NCP was 29 % during the cold frontal passage. However, under the subsequent stable weather conditions, the PM2.5 contribution from the YRD increased to 61.5 % and the contribution from the NCP decreased to 14.5 %. The results of this study indicate that cold fronts are potential carriers of atmospheric pollutants when there are strong air pollutant sources in upstream areas, which may deteriorate air quality in downstream regions.

To study the spatial inhomogeneity of new particle formation (NPF) in the polluted atmosphere of China, we conducted simultaneous measurements at an urban site near a petrochemical industrial area and a regional background site in the Yangtze River Delta region from September to November 2015. At the urban site we observed a type of local NPF event (number of events: n = 5), in which nucleation was limited to a small area but persisted for 6.8 h on average during the daytime. Formation rates of 5 nm particles (J5) were found to be correlated positively with the H2SO4 proxy (log J5 versus log[H2SO4] slope near 1) in both local and regional events. Furthermore, J5 was enhanced by the anthropogenic volatile organic carbon (VOC) plumes from nearby industrial area in the local events compared to the regional events. Size‐dependent aerosol dynamics calculation showed that in comparison with the observed regional events, the local events were featured with high nucleation rate (J1.3 > 1000 cm−3 s−1), high growth rate of sub‐3 nm particles (GRsub‐3 > 20 nm h−1), and high number concentration of nucleation mode particles (mean peak N5‐20: 6 × 104 cm−3). Considering these features, the local NPF events of anthropogenic origin may also be an important contributor to cloud condensation nuclei concentrations in urban and regional scales. In addition, the comparison of simultaneous regional NPF events between the two sites (number of events: n = 7) suggested that regional NPF intensity may be underestimated by the single‐point measurement at an urban site, due to the heterogeneity of air masses.

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